Ethnic Leaders Condemn Suu Kyi Trial

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Ethnic leaders inside and outside Burma on Monday condemned the Burmese regime’s trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, now entering its sixth day.

A prominent Rangoon-based Arakanese politician, Aye Thar Aung, who is secretary of the Arakan League for Democracy, said, “The current regime doesn’t care about national reconciliation and totally ignores the future of the country.”

The regime is pushing ahead with its “seven-step roadmap,” he said, determined to silence all political opposition, citing the case of the imprisoned political detainees of the 88 Generation Students, including leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi.

Aye Thar Aung said he believed the fate of Suu Kyi was pre-determined, and she would be detained again and unable to influence the general election politics of 2010.

The pro-democracy leader faces up to five years in prison term if found guilty on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest.

A prominent Mon politician, Nai Ngwe Thein, who is vice-president (1) of the Mon National Democratic Front in Mon State in southern Burma, said, “We can almost say that there is actually no rule of law in Burma.”

He called for unity among ethnic political parties and armed ethnic groups and urged the Burmese people to launch an uprising against the junta.

The general-secretary of the Karen National Union, Zipporah Sein, said, “It is not correct for them to charge Suu Kyi, because did nothing wrong. She is not guilty. Her house arrest over the past 13 years was a big crime that the regime committed.”

Zipporah called for the international community, including the United Nations, to put more pressure on the Burmese regime and to seek a “tripartite dialogue.”

Meanwhile, Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, the vice-president of the Kachin Independence Organization, said he lacked information about the charges and trial, but he was saddened to see Suu Kyi be put on trial by the authorities.

Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest. Her latest arrest followed an attack in May 2003 on her convoy of vehicles by junta-backed thugs in Depayin Township in Sagaing Division in central Burma.